by Lindsay H. Jones, USA TODAY Sports

by Lindsay H. Jones, USA TODAY Sports

DETROIT â?? There are plenty of numbers that scream that the Houston Texans are vulnerable, none more so than the 68 points and 983 yards allowed in two games in the span of five days.

And yet there is this, proof that Houston still might be the AFC's best team: The Texans, with a 34-31 overtime win on Thanksgiving Day, are the first NFL team to reach 10 wins this season. The defense might be gashed for big yards (525) and the offense might be credited for touchdowns it didn't earn, but the wins still count.

"It's hard to win 10 games. It's hard to win five games, even one game, in the league," Texans safety Danieal Manning said. "Right now there's a lot of favor on our side, a lot of things falling into our hands, and we're taking advantage of it."

The Texans would have had plenty of excuses had they lost to the Lions, from an injury-riddled defense that began the game without three starters and lost two others during the game to the fact that between Sunday afternoon and Thursday evening, they played nearly 10 quarters of football.

The Texans are one of three teams to play two overtime games in such a short amount of time, joining the Chicago Bears and Minnesota Vikings, who both did it in 1994, though those overtime games were over relatively quickly compared to Houston's recent marathon overtimes.

Thursday's overtime in Detroit lasted 12:39 and featured two turnovers (a fumble by Detroit and an interception by Houston) and two missed field goals (one by each team) before Shayne Graham's winning 32-yard kick. In all, Houston played more than 145 minutes since kickoff Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

"That's just unheard of," Houston coach Gary Kubiak said. "We got beat up, too. So it was really a test of our character, guys having to step up. We never panicked and just kept playing and had ourselves in great position in overtime."

It took until the second quarter for Houston to prove ready for a shootout with Detroit. The Lions scored on their opening drive on a 2-yard run by Mikel Leshoure, while Houston had no first downs (and 16 total yards) in the first quarter.

And even as Houston put together scoring drives of 75 and 74 yards in the second quarter, the Texans hardly looked like the best team in the AFC. The Lions built a 24-14 lead early in the third quarter before momentum swung back to Houston on one of those most bizarre plays of the season.

The officials did not call Houston running back Justin Forsett down when his knee hit the turf near midfield, and Forsett finished off the run for an 81-yard score. Because Lions coach Jim Schwartz threw his challenge flag when he was not allowed to, the play could not be reviewed and the touchdown stood.

Schwartz said he knew the rule he broke â?? as he should, because it was applied in the Lions' favor last year in a game against the San Francisco 49ers, as well as in a game last week when Atlanta Falcons coach Mike Smith was penalized when trying to improperly review a turnover.

Schwartz admitted he was still fuming at Walt Coleman's officiating crew for not awarding the Lions the ball on an earlier play in which he thought a punt bounced off a Houston player and should have been awarded to Detroit.

"We seemed to be behind a lot of those calls today, and I overreacted, and it cost us," Schwartz said. "You can't blame that on the players. That's just the NFL, and me blowing it by throwing the flag. In that situation, I don't know what to tell the players, because if they go dive on the guy, then all sorts of flags come out. If they pull up, again I guess you're just supposed to go over and gently touch them down."

Schwartz was understandably frustrated. The loss was Detroit's third in a row, each of them by 10 points to fewer. It was also the ninth consecutive loss for the Lions on Thanksgiving.

"It's all about taking advantage of your opportunities, and we had plenty of opportunities to win this game and we didn't," tight end Tony Scheffler said. "It seems like we got those breaks last year, we won those close games. This year, for some reason, we're just not getting that bounce; that call is not going our way."

Houston returned to Texas for a long weekend, with extra time to perhaps figure out how to solve the defensive problems that were revealed over the last week. Time will help starting cornerback Jonathan Joseph's hamstring and defensive tackle Shaun Cody's ribs heal, and the Texans will get a chance next week to return to a normal practice schedule before heading to back-to-back road games vs. the Tennessee Titans and New England Patriots.

"Obviously we haven't played our best football these last two games," said Tesans defensive end J.J. Watt, who had three more sacks Thursday to bring his season total to 14 1/2. "But like the great teams, you find a way to win no matter what the circumstances."

Excerpt from the NFL rule book on replays: After all scoring plays, interceptions, fumbles and backward passes that are recovered by an opponent or go out of bounds through an opponent's end zone, muffed scrimmage kicks recovered by the kicking team, after the two-minute warning of each half, and throughout any overtime period, any Replay Review will be initiated by a Replay Official from a Replay Booth comparable to the location of the coaches' booth or Press Box. There is no limit to the number of Referee Reviews that may be initiated by the Replay Official. He must initiate a review before the next legal snap or kick and cannot initiate a review of any ruling against a team that commits a foul that delays the next snap.